Skip to main content

Subscribe to Smithsonian magazine and get a FREE tote.

Articles

Fátima is one of Europe’s top pilgrimage destinations. There are plenty of picnic benches, endless parking and desolate toilets for the masses.

Portugal: One Foot in the Past and One in the Future

While many things are changing in modern Portugal, the nation still holds steadfast to many traditions

The band plays on in a small-town Czech bar few tourists would think to frequent.

Trebon: Yellow Lampposts and Czech Fly Paper

South of Prague but a world away, Trebon offers a glimpse of traditional Eastern Europe

None

Paying Attention

Ten Sites and One Overlooked Hero

Sherman has said she "didn't want to compete with the landscape," but she cleared space for a new Western woman.

Cindy Sherman: Monument Valley Girl

The artist’s self portrait plays with our notions of an archetypal West

Not for nothing is Italy's Fenestrelle Fortress know as "Great Wall of the Alps." Covering 320 acres, it is one of the largest fortified structures in Europe.

Endangered Site: Fenestrelle Fortress, Italy

The “Great Wall of the Alps” covers 320 acres and is one of the largest fortified structures in Europe

At the Church of the Nativity, three rival Christian groups use their caretaking duties to maintain their claims to the basiilica.

Endangered Site: Church of the Nativity, Bethlehem

The basilica believed to mark the birthplace of Jesus Christ has survived invasions, rebellions and earthquakes

Once the capital of an empire, Chan Chan was the largest adobe city on earth.

Endangered Site: Chan Chan, Peru

About 600 years ago, this city on the Pacific coast was the largest city in the Americas

Circular earthworks mark the center of the 510-foot-high "spiritual heart of Ireland," now threatened by a seemingly unstoppable four-lane highway.

Ireland’s Endangered Cultural Site

A new tollway threatens the archaeologically rich Hill of Tara that is the spiritual heart of the country

Hasankeyf is home to thousands of human-made caves, hundreds of medieval monuments and a rich-ecosystem.

Endangered Site: The City of Hasankeyf, Turkey

A new hydroelectric dam threatens the ancient city, home to thousands of human-made caves

A 65-foot statue of Buddha within one of 130 caves in northwest China is threatened by erosion and earthquakes.

Endangered Site: Xumishan Grottoes, China

This collection of ancient Buddhist cave temples date back to the fifth and tenth centuries, A.D.

The 2,400-mile-highway "took us to places that we needed to be, not in a literal sense, but a more philosophical sense," says curator Roger White.

Endangered Site: Historic Route 66, U.S.A.

The 2,400-mile highway was eclipsed by interstate highways that bypassed neon signs of roadside diners

A mysterious bird etched in stone at the ancient aboriginal rock art site in Western Australia.

Dampier Rock Art Complex, Australia

On the northwestern coast of Australia, over 500,000 rock carvings face destruction by industrial development

14th-century Visoki Decani Monastery in Kosovo and Metohija, Serbia.

Endangered Site: Visoki Decani Monastery, Kosovo

The fate of the 14th-century abbey has been darkened by ethnic violence in the Balkans

View of Jaisalmer Fort, built in 1156 by Rawal Jaisal, which has 99 bastions around its circumference.

Endangered Site: Jaisalmer Fort, India

The famed fort has withstood earthquakes and sandstorms for a millenia, but now shifts and crumbles

In a once strife-torn Belfast neighborhood (where murals today dramatize a message of hope), reconciliation is taking hold. Even so, says Father Aidan Troy, formerly of a Belfast parish, progress must be nurtured day by day: "Peace is a delicate plant."

In Northern Ireland, Getting Past the Troubles

A decade after Protestants and Catholics agreed on a peace treaty, both sides are adjusting to a hopeful new reality

Moviemakers love the old houses with side porches (Aiken-Rhett House, c. 1820) and palmetto-lined streets, says Josephine Humphreys.

My Kind of Town: Charleston, South Carolina

Novelist Josephine Humphreys says the city is more than just her hometown, it’s her life

The 103-year-old Centennial Baptist Church was built by a black architect and was pastored by Rev. Elias Camp Morris, the first president of the National Baptist Convention.

Endangered Site: Centennial Baptist Church

Built by a self-taught black architect, the Arkansas church has hosted leaders in the black community for over a century

Mohamed Mahmoud on the roof of his Al-Hamoni family library, of which he is curator, in Chinguetti, Mauritania.

Endangered Site: Chinguetti, Mauritania

The rapidly expanding Sahara Desert threatens a medieval trading center that also carries importance for Sunni Muslims

Coro is a "unique example of a well-conserved urban area with Spanish, Antillean, Dutch and indigenous architectural influences," says Venezuelan architect Maria Eugenia Bacci.

Endangered Site: Port City of Coro, Venezuela

One of South America’s best preserved towns, this Spanish colonial port city now faces deteriorating conditions

In 1908, the whaling industry collapsed and Herschel Island was deserted.

Endangered Site: Herschel Island, Canada

An abandoned island off the coast of the Yukon Territory holds a unique place in the history of the Pacific whaling industry

Page 1111 of 1327